Sunday, March 17, 7 p.m.
Rhythm City Casino Resort, 7077 Elmore Avenue, Davenport IA
Armed with chart-topping success, three Grammy Award nominations, and a professional touring history of nearly four decades, the progressive rockers of Queensrÿche play a special concert event at the Rhythm City Casino Resort on March 17, playing new releases from their current studio album The Verdict as well as hits including “Jet City Woman,” “Another Rainy Night (Without You),” and the signature smash “Silent Lucidity.”
Queensrÿche was formed in 1981 Seattle by guitarists Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton, both of whom had been playing in heavy-metal cover bands and wanted to front a group that would play original material. Joined by friends Geoff Tate, Eddie Jackson, and Scott Rockenfield, the young men rehearsed for two years before recording and releasing a four-song demo tape that was picked up by local record-store owners Kim and Diana Harris, who offered to manage the nascent musicians. With the help of the Harrises, the tape circulated throughout the Northwest, and in May of 1983, Queensrÿche released the EP Queen of the Reich on their own record label 206 Records. The EP sold 20,000 copies and earned the band major-label attention, and when an expanded version of the recording – eponymously titled Queensrÿche – was released toward the end of the year, it reached number 81 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Over the 35-plus years since that EP's debut, Queensrÿche has built a discography consisting of 15 studio albums (with the most recent, The Verdict, released on March 1), five live albums, seven compilation albums, seven video albums, 27 music videos, and 34 singles. Four of the band's studio albums – 1990's Empire, 1994's Promised Land, 1997's Hear in the Now Frontier, and 2066's Operation: Mindcrime II – made the top 20 of the Billboard 200, and the musicians have scored top-10 hits with such singles as “Real World,” “I Am I,” “Bridge,” and “Sign of the Times.” The chart-topping single “Silent Lucidity,” meanwhile, earned Queensrÿche five MTV Video Music Award nominations and a “Viewers' Choice Award” win, as well as a 1992 Grammy nomination for “Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.”
Queensrÿche plays Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Room at 7 p.m. on March 17, admission is $27-47, and more information and tickets are available by calling (844)852-4386 or visiting RhythmCityCasino.com.
